Melee Weapons

These weapons employ rapidly spinning lengths of serrated teeth that rip open metal and tear apart armour. Loud, savage, and visibly dangerous, chain weapons come in a variety of sizes: from the razor- toothed Chainswords wielded by Astra Militarum officers, to the massive, two-handed Eviscerators Ecclesiarchy fanatics wield against heretics.

Chain weapons have the Rend (x) and Loud Traits while they are activated. Additionally, while active, chain weapons impose Disadvantage on Stealth (AG) Tests.

Through the addition of psychoactive circuitry and arcane runes, Force weapons allow psykers to add their psychic strength to their attacks as well as discharge baleful Warp energies that have gathered around them. In their hands, what might appear to be an otherwise ordinary sword or staff becomes a weapon that can cleave asunder the finest suit of Power Armour and send Daemons howling back to the immaterium.

When a Force weapon is used by a character with the Psyker Talent, it deals additional Damage equal to their current Warp Charge. This additional Damage is doubled if the target is a Daemon.

Though these weapons pre-date the Imperium itself by untold millennia, their simple designs and dependable nature makes them favourites for many warriors. Most are simple tools of metal or wood, shaped with deadly purpose, others feature strange materials, ceremonial ornamentations, or other outstanding features.

Mundane weapons typically have only a single Trait.

Upon striking their target, Shock weapons deliver powerful and debilitating electrical blasts that overwhelm their victim’s nervous system, causing intense pain and temporary incapacitation. Aside from mild surface burns and lingering pain, Shock weapons leave little lasting damage. This makes them prized tools for law enforcement, who make judicious use of Shock Mauls in keeping order, and many overseers, who deploy Electro Flails in the hope of mustering fear-induced efficiency from their workers.

Shock weapons have the Inflict (Stunned) Trait while activated.

When activated, the striking surfaces of Power weapons are ensheathed in a field of disruptive energy that greatly magnifies their lethality. Where hits from swords might cut flesh, those from Power Swords easily sever limbs; blows from Power Fists can similarly punch holes in rockcrete barricades or tank hulls. Power weapons are often a sign of status in Imperial society; within the Askelline Adeptus Mechanicus, for example, the number of brass windings along the haft of an Omnissian Axe denotes rank within a forge’s priesthood.